Dead Roses
by River Laren
Summary: Itachi died. Except Pein has given him back he life, as long as he protects Konan. But now Sasuke has learned the truth Itachi has his own problems to take care of. How can he keep the two avengers from destroying the world, or worse, killing each other?
1. Chapter 1: Just Breathe

**Okay, I came up with this idea because Naruto should have asked Pein to bring Itachi back to life while he was resurecting Konoha, so our favorite big brother could fix the whole Sasuke deal. But he didn't. So guess what? I just decided I would. :) Konan being involed came later when I decided that it would be cool to write a Konan/Itachi pairing. THIS IS NOT A FLUFFY ROMANTIC FIC! I'm sorry, but it's not. There might be 'hints' and stuff, but the ultimate goal was resurrect Itachi. **

The first thing Itachi was aware of was breathing, not someone else's, but his own. The first sensation that welcomed him back into this world was his chest moving up and down. He was sure he had died.

That stuck out clearly in his mind. The battle with Sasuke, his last words, the blood, and strangling death: all were clear in his mind. To die in such a way, from internal wounds, breathing freely again should be welcoming, comforting even. It was not. For the past eight years, Itachi had been planning his own death. Everything from encouraging his brother to hate him enough to do it, to the attacks he would use and the information he would reveal.

Telling his brother to ask him anything and he would answer was really a last apology. Information was the last thing he could give his brother. That was why he had used the Susanoo and the Yata Mirror; they would both prove useful to Sasuke in future battles.

Then, to pay for the crimes he had committed, he had allowed himself to die. Finally after all those years of forcing himself to live so Sasuke could have his revenge he had been able to let go.

Perhaps he had been mistaken in assuming that death would end it all. If he really thought about it, he knew he didn't deserve such a mercy. His true punishment would be carrying the guilt even in death. Of course there might be another form of punishment also. He would face up to it boldly. He would take the torture without complaint or argument, Itachi decided.

But that was if he was in the afterlife. _What __if __you __didn't __die? __What __then?_ Something must have gone horribly wrong with his plan. Zetsu must have healed him. No, he was sure that he had died even before he hit the ground. _So __then...some one __brought __me __back __to __life._

Well. That was interesting. Now why would someone do a thing like that? _Unless __Sasuke __had __found __out __the __truth... _Itachi frowned at the thought. That was impossible. He had made sure of it himself. Pein could have brought him back, but that would be too inconvenient; not to mention Pein had suspicions about him anyway.

Itachi opened his eyes. He was careful about moving since it was possible he could be in the presence of enemies. There were no chakra signatures in the room. It was dark: a pitch black with no shapes or shades. He sucked in a breath. It had finally happened. He was blind.

He reached up slowly and touched his eyes. The sockets were empty. Itachi paused, horrified. Someone had taken his eyes. If they were in the wrong hands it could cause the end of the world. He would have to get them back somehow he decided as he pulled his forehead protector down over the vulnerable openings. It would be practically impossible, but it was his duty to try. Letting them be taken by anyone but Sasuke was unacceptable, and he knew his bother would not disrespect his body enough to take his eyes.

"_I __brought __you __back __to __protect __her __from __Madara."_ He winced slightly at the loudness of Pein's voice. Itachi had always hated the fact 'Leader-sama' could speak in his mind. It gave Itachi the sense he could hear his thoughts, and ultimately learn his secrets. If anyone learned his secrets it would cause a war that would end the war.

There was only one _her_ he could be talking about. Konan. The only female member of the Akatsuki, she was considered as tolerable and the rest of the members ignored her. All Itachi knew about her was the fact Pein had made her his partner. This was understandable as Pein liked to keep up the aura of mystery about him. Since Konan knew more about him already than anyone else, she was the obvious choice.

_"You __will __protect __her __with __your __life __or __forfeit __it. __You __will __help __her __with __whatever __she __asks __of __you. __If __Madara __harms __her __in __any __way __I __will __judge __you." _Itachi knew about Pein's 'judgments'. He was left with no choice but to become the kunochi's personal bodyguard.

This confused him. As far as he was aware, Madara saw her as a necessary evil and put up with her. Added to that was the fact that Pein had no great love for the kunochi, they were teammates but that was it. Kisame and Deideira liked to joke about them being lovers or some such nonsense. However, Pein and Konan had made it very clear they were not. So there was not reason for his over-concern.

There was some history between them though. No one knew details, but Itachi was a good listener and he had heard enough to know that they had known each other before Pein was Pein. It made sense to him now. Pein wanted to keep her alive because as long as she was he could be sure his wishes were carried out to the letter.

But why would she be in danger? An explosion sounded on the other end of what Itachi assumed was the base. Suddenly there was a sound of a door flying open. A rush of heat and an awkward weight flew into him, smashing him against the bed. The thing stirred at sound of the breath being forced out of his lungs. The person (he was sure it was a person now, and that person was probably Konan) quickly pushed off of him. He felt the wind as she rushed to the door and heard it slam.

Apparently she didn't make it. Her footsteps echoed as she quickly backed away from the affronting object. There was another blast of heat and a "HUMP" as another person flew through the door.

"Itachi," the harsh whisper was full of amazement and suppressed happiness.

"Kisame," he replied evenly.

"You're alive!" the shinobi stated dramatically.

"Quiet!" Konan hissed. The sobs she was trying to hide were obvious in her voice. "Madara is still out there!"

They were hiding from Madara? That could only mean Pein had betrayed Madara. So that was why Konan was in danger. But why betray Madara? He had promised to give Pein everything. Of course he already had everything, but criminals always wanted what they didn't have. He should know that. Itachi smirked bitterly at that thought. In reality though, Madara had probably betrayed Pein. The Uchiha founder was always good at that.

"Did you get Sasuke's eyes?" Kisame asked. Itachi gritted his teeth. _If __they __killed __my __little __brother, __so __help __me__…_

"Yes," Konan replied in a defeated tone.

"Good. Alright, we have to get out of here. Itachi, Pein and Madara are fighting on the other side of the compound. There's about…fifty yards between here and there. Kabuto and Zestu are around there somewhere watching. Sasuke…I think he's on a mission. So we have to get out of here without anyone seeing us." Kisame explained.

Sasuke had joined the Akatsuki? Itachi frowned. Something must have happened. He forced himself to focus on the present predicament. If he couldn't survive this he couldn't fix his brother's problems.

"Which base are we in?" he asked softly.

"Pein's village. He'll make it rain and hide the moon so we can leave. He'll make sure Kabuto and Zetsu are distracted. We should get to the hill without being seen and then activate an explosion. If they think we're dead we will have a much better chance of success later on." Konan whispered softly.

"Yes, but I can't see. You do not have the speed or stealth to make it there yourself and Kisame cannot carry both of us. So do you have any other suggestions?" Itachi asked. A hand slapped against his face. He quickly grabbed Konan's wrist. He twisted it gently until she gave a soft cry. He heard the rustle of paper, and grabbed her other wrist. "I would suggest that you never do that again. Understand?"

"This is Pein's wishes. He is sacrificing his life for this. You will find a way to get us out of here. That is the whole reason you are alive. This place is going to blow up in less than five minutes, so if you have any better ideas, you should enact them now. _Understand_?" she hissed. "It's not our fault you let your little brother kill you or that you 'forgot' to tell him the truth so that when he was told he went psycho and took your eyes to give him power. So don't you give me an attitude, Uchiha. I have no problems leaving you here."

"And I have no problems letting you get yourself killed if you insist on it." He returned copying her contemptuous tone with a smoothness only a member of a highborn clan could perfect. He purposely let the subject of Sasuke pass. He would have to find out the truth about his brother later. If what Konan said was true, he would need to live to sort out the mess the truth had caused.

"Less than three minutes," she reminded him.

"Um, if you two are trying to copy one of those chick flick moments and build up to a 'passionate kiss' would you hurry up so we don't die?" Kisame asked.

Itachi immediately let go of Konan's wrists and jumped back. He tried to give his partner a death glare, but the eye problem ruined the effect, he was sure. There was another whirl of paper and a grunt of pain from Kisame. Perhaps the woman wasn't all bad, as long as she didn't get any ideas and become a fan girl. "Less than…two minutes…" The shark-man choked out. The whirling abruptly stopped. "Now, Konan-chan, if you wouldn't mind to use one of Leader-sama's mind transfer jutsus so Itachi-san can see, then he will carry you out of danger." He was still using his mocking tone, but Itachi could see the sense behind this idea.

The shinobi did as they were told. Itachi 'saw' again, unfortunately from Konan's perspective, but it was better than nothing. They both ignored the awkwardness of the situation as the kunochi climbed onto the Uchiha's back. The Akatsuki were the best at suppressing emotion of any ninja.

Itachi saw Kisame nod and together they jumped from the window. The flight through the night was simple, the concealing jutsu did its work well and with Pein's distraction Madara and his henchmen didn't suspect a thing.

They were on the hill above the base when the compound blew. Konan jerked around to see it, stopping Itachi's forward progress as he now could not see what was in front of him. Still, he remembered how he had felt That Night and allowed her a moment of mourning without comment.

After the orange fire had died down and the blast of debris finished raining down she watched her carefully built dreams go up in smoke with all her memories before turning to the battlefield. "I will come back Pein. I will kill him for this. What happened to Yahiko will not happen again. I will see your dreams fulfilled, Nagato," he heard her promise softly.

She looked away from the repulsive scene then and never once looked back. Itachi resumed following Kisame who had politely stopped to wait for them. He ignored the tears welling up in her eyes. The fact they were blurring his vision was annoying. But the rain would have done that anyway, he reflected. As the dampness set in his bones he remembered how much he hated traveling in the rain.

Itachi thought about her rash promise and how similar it was to the one Sasuke had made to their family. Once Sasuke had learned the truth however (Itachi felt it was safe to assume she had been telling the truth earlier) he had regretted that promise. He wondered if Konan would make a similar mistake.

Perhaps it had been wrong to influence his otouto into destroying his life for revenge. Granted he hadn't meant to ruin his life, but to save it and Uchiha honor. He scoffed silently. If Sasuke had learned the truth, there was no perhaps about it.

What was it Deideria had said? _"'Hind __sight __is __twenty-twenty, __un._" But now he had a second life. Now he was going to fix the problem his pride had created. Pride really was a downfall, he reflected.

With an eerie suddenness, the rain stopped and the clouds parted. Konan momentarily looked up, one last raindrop slipping down her cheek. Pein was dead.

Her strong emotions crossed over with her vision into Itachi's mind. She felt the same way he had when he'd left the horror scene that he had turned his home and family into.

It was a full moon tonight. The irony was not lost on him.

**AN: I hope this wasn't too confusing. I do plan to go into more detail about the circumstances leading up to this in the next chapter, so if it isn't clear don't worry. What you need to understand now is that Pein decided to let Madara kill him but secertly brought Itachi back so Konan could carry on their plans. I hope you liked it. If you did, let me know. Suggestions would be appreciated also. **


	2. Chapter 2: Reasoning

Itachi tripped on a branch. He quickly brought his other foot around to balance himself before Konan's extra weight sent them to the ground. A growl escaped his throat, but he couldn't help it. This was all her fault.

At first depending on Konan's vision hadn't been that bad, almost pleasant even. There was none of the previous pain he had associated with seeing before, and now he was not half blind. Seeing himself from another person's eyes had also given him an interesting new prospective on life.

What bothered him however (besides the awkwardness of the thing) was the fact he could not control what she looked at; which was currently proving to be a bigger problem than what he had first imagined.

After the incident on the hill, Konan had completely zoned out. He supposed it was because of the shock or pain or whatever and it was completely normal. Be that as it may, it didn't change the fact she was no longer focusing on anything. All the images were fuzzy, and Itachi could barely see where they were going, much less what he was about to trip over. Whenever he would stumble, Konan would 'come back down to earth' and a few minutes later go back to wherever it was she had been before.

Kisame kept giving him odd looks every now and then. This was extremely irritating; but as Itachi could not glare back and didn't particularly feel like explaining the problem, there was nothing he could do to stop it.

It was odd how much the sharingan influenced people, he mused. Before they had paid him their respects and remembered more readily what he was capable of. But now he felt as if they were treating him the same as a chunin. _And neither of them realizes it._ He wouldn't expect anything more from Konan, but Kisame should remember. He should have known better. Perhaps he would if Itachi had his eyes in general, even without the sharingan. He mentally sighed. After all he had done, to now lose his eyes…

But he knew better than anyone that life was cruel and unfair. When had he started allowing himself to believe that it was not? When he had started rationalizing what he had done to Sasuke. He sighed

The blob that was really Kisame jumped into the trees. Now that they were in what appeared to be a forest it would make travel faster; if Itachi could see. The idea of missing a branch and falling like a sack of flour to the ground was embarrassing enough; he didn't need an oblivious Konan landing on top of him.

"Focus," he ordered in his commanding ANBU tone. It might be normal for her feel this way, but she was a shinobi and now she had to set her emotions aside. Both of their lives deepened on it.

She seemed to realize this as his vision became clearer almost immediately.

They traveled through the night without stopping. They were trying to find a small out of the way town where they could stop without Madara coming across their trail. It was harder than at first expected; well, finding a town that would satisfy everyone was anyway.

Kisame wanted a decent place to stay while Itachi firmly reminded him that anywhere they could find that, Madara would find them. Konan dejectedly ordered them to keep going, saying that escaping Madara's notice was the most important thing, even if they had to go to Konoha to do it.

Kisame rolled his eyes but did as she said. Itachi knew his partner enough to know that he would really rather go to Konoha because they would have 'a real bed' in the hotels. Itachi had long ago decided there was no such thing as a 'real bed' except the one he had called his own until he was thirteen.

Finally they came across a deserted shack. The truth was unless they really fled to a Hidden Village there was always a chance Madara would find them. With the criminal status however, dieing in a fight with the Uchiha founder sounded like the lesser of two evils. However, everyone deemed the structure as acceptable, provided it didn't fall in during the night.

Konan didn't spend too much time looking it over, so Itachi didn't get a very good mental picture of the 'building' except for the fact it was brown. And there were spiders everywhere. He felt her shiver.

Kisame practically skipped inside and flopped down on the 'bed' in the corner; mumbling about how he was not giving it up even for a woman or a blind man. "And you can't make me, Itachi-san!"

"You really think I care?" he returned.

"No," he mumbled, already seaming to be asleep. "…Get me up in the middle of the night because another Uchiha maniac decides to destroy everything…yeeesh people…" The shark-man mumbled on.

Konan glanced over at Itachi questioningly.

"He's talking in his sleep. I've been trying to break him of the habit for eight years. Unfortunately, whatever he is really thinking comes out of his mouth without his realizing it," he explained.

"So the polite shinobi-" she started. 

"Is really just an act? Yes."

"I see. Is he really loyal to Pein then?"

Itachi raised an eyebrow as she slid from his back. "If he wasn't, he would have said so, now wouldn't he?" He was starting to sound like that annoying sensei Sasuke had been unfortunate enough to be assigned to. Blindness and disrespect were doing horrible things to his persona.

Konan tried to meet his gaze, forgetting that he was really 'seeing' through her eyes. "How do I know I can trust you?"

It was a reasonable question. He supposed she deserved an answer. "You don't. You can only assume you can. But apparently Pein believed I would be trustworthy. Now, how can I trust you? What are _you_ trying to achieve?" The moonlight glinting off his forehead protector really did have an interesting effect. He wondered what Konan was thinking at the moment.

"Revenge," she replied finally. A bitter laugh overtook her; it was the most emotion he had ever seen from the blue-haired woman. "That's not what he wanted though. Pein had this idea that I would continue his partnership with Konoha's jinchirikki. He wanted me to help them win the war." She looked out over the harsh night and Itachi knew she was lost in a memory. "He threw away Yahiko's dream; his own dream. After all these years we were finally close enough…" She looked back at Itachi. "All because the Kyyubi told him a bunch of fairytale lies. The only way to end suffering and have peace in this world is to force it upon people yourself. He knew that. He taught me that."

"So you intend to have Kisame and I continue the Akatsuki?" he asked calmly. She was speaking irrationally, but she was thinking that way also. It would be best to ask her questions and allow her to realize it on her own. Although, he realized that might not happen for a long time.

"No. I intend to steal your brother's sharingan and personally kill Madara. In the unlikely event I should live, I will take over Amegakure. As long as Madara dies I really don't care what you and Kisame do." Itachi almost laughed at her. But she was dead serious. Well, he would let her sleep on it. Still, if Kisame would get the eyes then they could leave her here alone. _If you can find another way to see until you can get them implanted_, logic reminded him. "However, should your brother get in my way, I will not spare him. If you want him alive you will have to go after him yourself."

Something inside Itachi snapped. She was threatening his little brother, who had been the victim too many times, whom he had sacrificed so much for. No one was allowed to do that. Not like she could really pose a threat to Sasuke, but it was the principal of the thing.

"You will not lay a hand on my brother." His tone was deadly, his features set.

Deference entered her face as he saw it in the reflection of the forehead protector. She seemed to remember who she was addressing. Her tone was quite a bit meeker and she formed her next words into a question. "You will go with me then?"

He paused for a second. That wasn't what he had meant to suggest. But perhaps it _was _best to go with her. Right now she was emotionally unstable. He knew that after she slept and had come to terms with Pein's death, she would be okay. However, it was possible that seeing Madara could set her off again; which could endanger Sasuke.

Still, Konan wouldn't survive past the first ten minutes when the criminal mastermind really started fighting. No one could; except himself.

It was then Itachi realized the flaw in his plan, he had not killed Madara. If he had it was doubtful Sasuke would have ever learned the truth; killing Danzo would not have hurt anything either. It was time to set those mistakes right. If, in the process, he could fix whatever had happened to his otouto, then he could die again with everything in order.

Going with her would be the only way these things could be achieved. Plus, she still had Sasuke's eyes. Had she truly been serious about using them herself?

"On one condition, you will give me Sasuke's eyes. Only then will I help you avenge Pein," he replied.

His vision bobbed as she nodded. Instinct told him she had planned that part all along. "Very well, we will capture a medic to conduct the procedure tomorrow."

Itachi raised an eyebrow. "To capture a good one it will take longer than just tomorrow. Take the first watch. I'll wake Kisame when you're done." There was an art to waking up the swordsman, and if you got it wrong you died.

There was a pause before she turned and did as he had said. Itachi sat down and leaned against the dilapidated wall. She was trying to take control of the 'Akatsuki' but she was inexperienced. In all her service to Pein she had been nothing more than a glorified bodyguard. Itachi supposed that he would play along with her vanity until he had learned more about her. Then she would realize that he was the leader, not the follower- just like Kisame had. He was very good at subtly leading; influencing people to do what he wanted while they thought it was their own idea. It was his most outstanding talent: that he could use another means than force.

But what did that gain him if all his perfect plans had fallen apart as soon as he died? All he had wanted in his life after that night was for Sasuke to become everything he should have if Danzo had never given that order; for Sasuke to restore the clan and for the Uchiha to be honored. That was why he had sacrificed himself. Sasuke was the only reason.

Maybe he shouldn't have pressured Sasuke so much. But that had been his role to play and Sasuke might never have killed him if he hadn't. He had known he could not live with himself for long. He had never planned on having too. As soon as this problem with his brother was fixed he was going to fulfill his promise to Konan. Itachi would indeed destroy Madara; and hopefully die at the end of the battle.

The thought of that did not give him as much relief as it once had. One question refused to leave his mind no matter how long he ignored it. He sighed and rubbed a hand over his face.

What had been the flaw? There was always a chance for everything to fall apart, but he had made sure those chances where minimum. He thought it over. Slowly, carefully, and methodically, he went over everything again. However, it would be impossible to find the true answer without more information, and he would have to wait until later for that.

So he let himself fall asleep.

**A/N: I am officially begging for reviews. Anybody? I would be grateful forever! _Please? _**


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